Posts Tagged ‘SMRT’

An accident happened at Boon Lay MRT station this morning which caused a commotion at the packed platform. A male passenger reportedly slipped and fell from the escalator which caused those behind him to roll down the escalator like falling ‘dominoes’.

The stunning scene was captured by Hardwarezone forumer ‘MaoMao’ on his way to school who described the situation in the MRT station:

[Source: Hardwarezone Forum]

“Just now I was on my way to sch. I was at Boon Lay MRT and I was trying to exit the station. It was OMG man. I was wondering why are there so many people ! To exit the station from the MRT platform takes like 5 or more minutes.”

He was heading down the stairs when the accident happened:

“A passenger fell from the escalator and this causes a few passengers behind him to fall and they rolled down on the escalators. I am not sure what caused them to fell but when I saw the incident, the escalator was stopped. A MRT staff came shortly to help.”

His account was corroborated by STOMPer Jamin who wrote:

“The infrastructure in Singapore is unable to support the rate in which the population is growing.”

It is not known if the passengers who fell and rolled down the escalator suffered any serious injuries. One thing for sure, they would almost certainly be late for work, even without the usual disruption in train service.

After disappearing from public spotlight for three months to pursue her own ‘personal interests’, ex-SMRT CEO Saw Phaik Hwa is back again to share her ‘story’ about her 9 years as CEO of SMRT with Singaporeans on her personal blog.

In a post dated two days ago, Ms Saw wrote that she intends to use her blog to talk about the changes taking place in SMRT since the frequent train disruptions, how she transformed the company over the years and ‘what the future holds for both of us.’

She also admitted that she knew little about SMRT before she was ‘headhunted’ to become its CEO.

“When I was asked in 2002 to take up the SMRT post, I knew little about the company, as my last job took me away from Singapore quite a bit and my interaction was largely at an international commercial organisation serving travellers. Since then, times have changed. I feel so much for SMRT and the men and women in the organisation who serve the nation selflessly every day.”

Ms Saw was widely blamed for the spate of train disruptions which took place in December last year triggering a massive public furore which eventually culminated in her ‘resignation’ from SMRT.

Despite her departures, the train delays and disruptions have become a common occurrence with ‘signaling faults’ commonly quoted as a reason.

Some responses from Hardwarezone forumers:

“during her tenure as CEO, public transport standards dropped considerably. Regardless of whether the company’s share price or earnings rose or not, she is a failure.” – weng123

“the smrt inquiry is coming, either this mth or next, so this is just some PR exercise on her part” – satayxp

“It will be good that she shares her side of the story. The board knows her background and is hired to boost non-train business. After that faithful day, she was quite silent and only see LTA in action. 154th put her on a pharoah sedan and the next thing was her ‘sudden’ desire to step down 6 mth ago. The is a huge vacuum of event/info in bewteen that she can help to fill.” – matrix05